To - Nevers
Distance - 80km
Time - 5.5hours
Total - 751km
Sorry you will be getting bombarded with blogs today due to the lack of wi-fi for the last couple of nights.
It started as a quiet day. After the first hilly bit I got back on the proper route and flew along the paths. It was mainly cloudy with odd sunny spells with a cool breeze. It was good for cycling. As I cycled along I was looking at the trees and noticed a large number of trees with circular growths on them. Most trees still haven't got there own leaves growing yet because its been cold here in France and it seems a few weeks behind where they would normally expect to be so these growths stand out. It dawned upon me that the circular growths were actually mistletoe growths. I have been cycling under the trees all day but no kisses so far! See the photo later.
I arrived at La Charite sur Loire and it was a lovely town, well worth a visit. It reminded me that am doing this journey for charity and that some people still need to make a contribution at www.justgiving.com/R-Vernon. Wasn't that a subtle link!
I carried on looking for a suitable place to have a menu de jour but surprisingly the towns that I thought must have a few restaurants never seem to have any. I kept n going and unexpectedly found a nice auberge and had a lovely meal. It was probably the best so far. A photo of my salad entree is shown and the main course was boeuf and mushroom in a filo pastry parcel with potatoe, ratatouille and carrots. These were probably my first vegetables of the trip. Last course was il flotante, which is a meringue floating on a creme anglais sauce, lovely.
I got into Nevers around 2pm and went straight to the Tourist Information. I asked a few questions about things to see etc. The woman asked me if I was English (a bit presumptuous as I thought my French had been particularly good, for me!) and to cap it all she told me I was only a statistic!
I have been thinking of all the puns about Nevers that I can include in the blog. However, thought 'no nay Nevers no more' the readers of this blog will be above that sort of cheap humour so i will not mention any or I will Nevers say die!
Nevers seems a nice place it is the regional capital. It turns out that the RAF bombed the cathedral by mistake during the 2nd World War. I'm not sure it was a mistake, I saw the photos and it seems an very accurate hit to me.
I am staying here for two nights. I thought it was probably time I had a day off cycling not that I feel I need it. It will give me a chance to have a lie in and plan the next couple of days whilst I have wi-fi. The accommodation is in a basic hotel. I will have to move rooms after tonight because I bartered the owner down on the room price by 5 euros, what a skin flint.
When I got in the room I used the wi-fi and logged on to my MasterCard account and found that 200 euros had been withdrawn from my card at the same town that I had been refused cash at yesterday. Oh no! I got straight onto them and it was an administrative error and has now been rectified, thank goodness.
By the way, Paul Madden did manage to find the rude words for the Bye Bye Blackbird song. Not so goody goody after all!
Photo 1, Mistletoe
Photo 2, Sign for La Charite (get some money donated)
Photo 3, Church at La Charite
Photo 4, My salad, lovely!
Photo 5, The Ducal Palace at Nevers.
Hi Richard, just a quick note to say hello and that we're very pleased to hear that things are still going well, Nevers a dull moment no doubt. Your blog is doing a very good imitation of a guidebook -we'll have to add some of these places to our list of places to visit. In the meantime, I need to get some shut-eye so I'll bid you a bonne nuit.
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